U.S. stocks surge after FBI clears Clinton
NEW YORK - Stocks are surging on Wall Street, breaking a nine-day losing streak, after the FBI said newly discovered emails didn’t warrant any action against presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 340 points, or 1.9 percent, to 18,228 as of 1:13 p.m. Eastern time. The S&P 500 index gained 42 points, or 2 percent, to 2,128 in midday trading. The Nasdaq composite jumped 116 points, or 2.3 percent, to 5,163.
Investors have been anxious in recent weeks over signs that the U.S. presidential race was tightening. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index is coming off its longest losing streak since 1980. Monday’s surge erased more than half of those losses.
Banks and health care companies rose more than the rest of the market. UnitedHealth and JPMorgan Chase led the Dow higher.
Clinton got a boost late Sunday, when FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers that a review of new emails from the Democratic candidate did not change the bureau’s recommendation that she should not face charges.
The market fell on Oct. 28 after the FBI notified Congress that it was reviewing newly discovered emails linked to Clinton, who is seen by Wall Street as likely to maintain the status quo. Donald Trump’s policies are less clear, and the uncertainty and uncomfortable closeness of the polls caused jitters in financial markets ahead of Tuesday’s general election.
The VIX, a measure of how much volatility investors expect to see in the market over the next 30 days, slumped 17.5 percent Monday after surging 40 percent last week to its highest level since June, when Britain voted to leave the European Union.
The slide in the VIX reflected less anxiety among investors. Safe haven investments also slumped as investors felt comfortable taking on more risk. Bond prices fell, driving the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up to 1.82 percent from 1.78 percent late Friday, while the price of gold fell $23.60, or 1.8 percent, to $1,281 an ounce. Utilities and phone stocks, two other havens investors seek when they expect turmoil, lagged the market.
U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 25 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $44.32 a barrel in New York. The price of oil is coming off a six-day losing streak. Brent crude, which is used to price international oils, was up 6 cents at $45.64 a barrel in London.
The dollar strengthened across the board. It was up to 104.57 yen from 103.13 on Friday. The dollar was down 2.2 percent to 18.61 Mexican pesos from 19.03 pesos. The Mexican currency has become an indirect proxy among investors for Trump’s chances to win the White House. Investors have speculated that a Trump administration would be negative for the Mexican economy, and would cause the Mexican peso’s value to fall as a result.
